Blending apparatus



April 17, 1951 A, L, @HMS-ry 2,549,169

BLENDING APPARATUS Filed Nov. '7, 1947 mpv ono IN1/EN TOR.

" Auml L. Cnmsw BY` n 7 if; i@ 64W@ f//W7 H'TOFNEY Patented Apr. 17, 1951 BLENDING APPARATUS Anker L. christy, Kenilworth, 111., assignor to The Pure Oil Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Ohio Application November 7, 1947, Serial N o. 784,586

Claims.

This invention relates to an apparatus and a method for blending liquids such as lubricating oils and, in particular, compositions comprising mineral oil lubricating components containing one or more additives in small but effective amounts.

It is axiomatic that lubricating liquids are tailored to lit the function for which they are intended. Accordingly, every lubricant is a complex system containing in addition to the base oil, one or more ingredients to balance its anti-corrosion, extreme pressure, anti-oxidation,

and detergent characteristics. In the preparation of such balanced lubricating compositions, the processing steps always include the blending of the base lubricant with the balancing ingredientsv l It is, accordingly, an object of this invention to provide a method and an apparatus for performing eicient and rapid blending of liquids with each other and one or more balancing ingredients.

It is another object of the invention to provide an apparatus in which metering, mixing, and heating can be conducted with a maximum of eiciency.

It is a further object of the invention to pro- Vide an apparatus wherein the blending can be conducted under reduced or elevated pressure and elevated temperature to bring about a certain amount of distillation and drying of the fluid being blended.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will in part beobvious and in part appear hereinafter.

The invention, accordingly, consists of a blend- 4 ing kettle having the features of construction,

combination of elements and arrangement of parts for blending of liquids such as lubricants and includes an elongated vessel served by a metering feed apparatus for introducing fluid thereto and containing circulating apparatus, and` heating-contacting apparatus for bringing about mixing and heating of the iluid.

More specically, the apparatus comprises a kettle having a conical bottom, a centrally disposed conduit communicating with a pump in the bottom of the tank to receive liquid being blended and direct it through an array of orices against the face of a deflecting plate in the upper portion of the tank, from which the liquid flows onto the face of a second delecting plate and thence back to the body oi liquid in the tank.

To accomplish ecient heating and` blending of the ingredients comprising the composition, the deiiecting plates can be made hollow to provide for the introduction of steam or other heating mediums.

For a more precise understanding of the nature and scope of the invention, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings which show a preferred embodiment of the invention in which:

Figure l is a longitudinal section showing the relationship of the several parts of the apparatus in diagrammatic form;

Figure 2 is a sectional view of a distributing ring for ejecting liquid being blended;

Figure 3 is a plan view of a portion of the distributing ring to illustrate the arrangement of one form of orice on the device;

Figure 4 is a partial section of the apparatus to illustrate an alternative arrangement of feed bottom of the kettle, there is provided an inlet conduit It equipped with metering pump Il.

The point for the introduction of the fluids and i components to be blended is shown in block form as I B inasmuch as these specific devices donot constitute a part of the combination constituting the invention.

Disposed near the bottom of the tank is a sump pump I9 with its outlet connected to central conduit 20 in the tank. Conduit 20 terminates in a distributing head 2| which is made up of ring 22 held in place by iianges 23 and 24. The distributing head is shown in section in Figure 2 and described in detail below. Disposed over and around said distributing head in. the upper portion of said kettle is an inverted i bowl-shaped deflecting surface 25 which is held j conveniently in fixed spaced relationship with the head on the centrally disposed conduit by flange 2li. Disposed below the deilecting plate 25 and also carried by centrally disposed conduit 20 is an inverted saucer-shaped deecting plate On the top of the tank and exterior thereto is motor 2-8 having a drive shaft which passes through the top of the tank and down through the centrally disposed conduit to provide motive power for the pump in the bottom of the tank.

At any convenient point in the upper portion of the tank, a steam line such as 29 can be introduced to bring steam or heating medium to one or both of the delecting plates, for example 25. A line.

Steam condensate escapes via line 3D.

3i controlled by valve 32 serves to provide connection to a pump for evacuating the tank.

In Figure 2 there is shown an enlarged sec tion of the distributing head employed for Yspreading liquid and ingredients to be blended from' the upper and lower courses will meetwhere they impinge upon .deecting plate 25. The object of providing the oriiices set atV angles is -to cause confluence of the liquid streams at the surface of the .delecting plate, thereby subjecting them to shearing stress in the ejection and mixing `when they spread out into a lm on `the surface.

Figure 3 illustrates the manner in which the orifices are preferably oriented away from radii of the ring.

An alternative form of the apparatus is shown in `Figure 4 embodying a modification of the bottom of the tank. The outlet conduit and valve Al2 land i3 as described in connection with Figure 1 are shown. Conduit 35 and valve 36 represen-t yan inlet to which the rmetering pump 31 can be connected to introduce 'liquid directly into the bottom of the tank vthrough conduit li.

Power .is supplied to the circulating pump l?? through the bottom-of the tan-k by means of drive shaft 39 which passes into the bottom of the tank through conduit 38 to the pump i9. A suitable vpacking gland will have to be provided in conduit 38 below the point of connection with conduits l2 and` l35 to prevent-leakage of ingredients would be measured out and mixedV andV introduced into the apparatus through metering pump ITI from which the iioW isin the direction of the arrows to the bottom of the tank. gredients .of the oil into the apparatus successively. The pump i9 lifts the materials, drives Ithem through the annular .Space between ccnduit 2,2' and the centrally disposed drive .shaft fintoY the distributing head from which the liquid is thrown at high speed against the inside surface of deflecting plate 25. The liquid is subjected to shear in its passage from the distributing head to the Vdeiiecting plate where itis spread into a film, heated, and passed onto the second delecting plate over which vit flows in a thin lin .to undergo furthermixing. From the secs ond deflecting plate, the liquid is returned to the body of liquid in the tank where in due course it is pumped through the circuit a second and more times as may be required. By maintaining the liquid level in the tank at a point below vthe level of the Asecond deflecting plate, it is possible to circulate liquids being blended rapidly through the tank and to heat them rapid- 1y. thereby to avoid .danger o discoloration and Itis also possible to introduce the 5.11--

darkening, which follow from extended heating in conventional steam heated kettles. Where the oil or any of theingredients being used in blending contain water in small amount, or low boiling constituents, it is easily possible to remove such matter by subjecting the iluid in the tank to a vacuum during the heating and mixing thereof.

, nIn an operation in which two' stocks arel used `to prepare a blend of a given viscosity, it Will be found that circulation of the fluids for a period of time sucient to take the entire volume through the circuit about kten times will insure complete mixing. lhe time consumed in the preparation ofthe 'batch will depend upon the capacity o the sump `pump and the total volume of liquid..

t is also apparent that by introducing liquids at the top of the tank to spread them over the rst deiiecting plate and raising the pump toward the middle of the tank, the apparatus can be made to operate as a continuous blender.

What is claimed is;v Y

l. A blending apparatus comprising, a vessel, conduit means communicating with thebottom thereof for introducing materials to be blended into said vessel to form a body of material therein, a centrally Vdisposed conduit and pump near the bottom of said vessel for taking liquid from :the lower portion thereof, a distributing head communicating with saidcentral'ly disposed con.- dui-t and maintained in xed spaced relation therewith and having arranged thereonY a plurality of ori'ces for liquid ejection in the space above the body of 'liquid in the vessel, concave deiiecting means surrounding said distributing head for vintercepting liquid discharged therefrom, and deliecting means under said concave delecting means for intercepting the liquid drained from said vconcave surface, and returning it to the body of liquid in said vessel.

2. An apparatus in accordance vwith claim 1 in which the said distributing Ihead has nozzles arranged therein to direct streams of liquid to points of confluence corresponding substantially plate.

3. An apparatus in accordance with ciaim 1 `in which said concave deecting means is a hollow member communicating with a source of heating iiuid.

4. An apparatus in Aaccordance with claim 2 in which the concavev deflecting means `is a hollow meinbercommunicating with a Vsource of heating fluid.

5. An apparatus in accordance with claim 2 to the rconcave surface of the said defiecting in which the deflecting members are heating v and deiiecting members.

ANKER L. CHRISTY.

REFERENCES olrnnV i The following references are of recordV in the file of this patent:

.UNITED STATES PATENTS 

